Growing Grass
by Lika Amanaka
Summary: A quick fic to welcome summer. Summer is a marvellous time: one sunny day after another, outdoor swimming, ice cream trucks, bugs….ok not the bugs but you get the main idea. But no one ever discusses the dark side of summer; lawn maintenance. Mild swearin


**Disclaimer: **No bugs were hurt in the making of this fic…unless it was crawling on the ceiling at the time I was writing this…then it was hurt because I got my father to kill it for me. On another note, this fic was made for the pleasure of all Gundam Wing fans and no profit was made from said fanfiction.

**AN: Been a while since I've posted a fanfic. It feels good to be back. Anyway, here's a story about summer for the love of summer. I started this last summer, lost my motivation and left it. I am now finished with school forever so before I haul my sorry ass to find a real career job…..Enjoy!**

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**P.S. Trowa is the narrator of this story**. I find he's my favourite when it comes to telling a good story…If you read my previous work "Stranded" then you know where I'm coming from. If not, go read it! It's so much fun.

Growing Grass for Garden Glory

Summer is a marvellous time: one sunny day after another, outdoor swimming, ice cream trucks, bugs….ok not the bugs but you get the main idea. But no one ever discusses the dark side of summer; lawn maintenance. That's right, you heard me…read it…whatever. It takes a lot more than just mowing your lawn and pruning a few tree branches. It's a competition, pitting neighbour against friendly neighbour. Although they are far from friendly when it comes to winning.

"So, remind me again. Why are we doing this?" Heero asked, cutting the engine of the lawnmower. He had finally finished working on the spacious front yard. Not an easy feat, with four other guys getting in the way.

"Would you rather it looked like a jungle out here?" Quatre replied. He was currently mixing fresh, nutritious soil into the hard ground along the walkway to the front door. We had a line up of new flowers, bulbs and roots awaiting planting and the sooner the better.

"Well, at least it would be unique." Heero countered. I looked across at all the prim, well maintained, white picket fence houses along the street. Freaky, the way the owners tried so hard to be neater than the one beside it. Don't get me wrong, I hate more than anything mess and disorganization. Probably comes from my military training, because I'm forever picking up after the guys.

"I know why we're doing this." Duo spoke up. He was happily trimming the hedges. "It's because it looks better."

"Thank you, Maxwell for clearing that up." Wufei, he never leaves an opportunity open when it came to annoying Duo.

"You didn't let me finish!" Duo stuck his tongue out at Wufei, who rolled his eyes at Duo's childish behaviour. "Just look at it! It's like a cushiony, velvet carpet of green. All smooth and healthy. You gotta be proud of an accomplishment like that."

"Hardly an accomplishment if you periodically trim and water it."

I sighed. As I walked over from the mailbox, I flipped through our mail, weeding out the junk from the bills.

"Hey! You! Litterbug, watch where you drop your trash, I'm trying to-" I stopped, turned and glared at Mister Snot Bubble from number whatever across the street. He froze, stuttered then bent to pick up a sheet of paper from the road. "I-I-I- mean, I-I-I think you dropped this. It m-m-must be important. W-w-w-wouldn't want you to lose anything." He backed away with good grace after I took it from him.

I turned the sheet over as I distributed the various other mails to my friends. A flyer, about some neighbourly competition…this was definitely junk mail.

"What's that?" Crap. If I know anything, it's that my friends couldn't turn down a competition. "Nothing", I lied, trying to shove it into my pocket.

"It's not 'nothing' if you're trying to hide it." Heero grabbed at the paper in my hands and swiftly smoothed it out. "Front lawn friendly competition. The best lawns in town will be judged and a winner chosen for the grand prize."

"Cool, what's the prize?" Duo asked, peering over his shoulder.

"It doesn't matter, we already have a Winner" Wufei jerked his thumb in Quatre's general area.

"Because I haven't heard _that_ one before." Quatre growled, throwing a packet of seeds at Wufei's head.

"It doesn't matter. The contest's over. Ended last week." Heero replied, crumbling the paper between his hands and sending it straight into the recycling bin.

"Two points" Quatre replied automatically, leaning on his shovel. "By the way, I'm finished. We can start transferring the new plants into the ground now."

One by one, we divided the plants among us and headed for different sections of the walkway. We didn't exactly have landscaping experience so it was pretty much like this: you find a spot, you plant a flower, you water said flower. End of story.

"Hey Trowa, do you think this flower would look good next to that shrub?"

Or so I thought. Duo's plot of land was the closest to me. I pretended to pack earth around my plants before answering. But something beat me to it.

"Oh. Ok never mind. I think I'm finished now." Duo hurriedly stood up, dusting himself off, and was shuddering all over. When I looked up, he was staring with mingled disgust and awe at something in the flower bed. Intrigue got the better of me and I went over to see what all the fuss was about.

"What's the matter? Did a flower bite you or something?" I leaned over. Maybe he found an ant hill; though I didn't see anything amazing when I peered into the grass.

Duo shuddered again and then jumped almost a foot into the air. "Ewww! There it is again. That's it, I'm leaving." Duo took three large strides and was standing safely on the porch, watching.

By this time, the others we interested as well. Heero, Quatre and Wufei walked over, all brushing dirt from their gloves. Quatre couldn't help but chuckle. "Duo, of course you're going to see bugs, this is their home after all."

"Well duh." Duo replied. "Bugs I can handle, but creatures like that are just plain freaky. It runs man. It's a bug that looks like a piece of noodle but it runs. Don't try to tell me what species it is either, I don't even care."1

"Well, you better go buy some bug spray and seal up the house. I wouldn't want to find that in my dinner." Wufei smirked.

"Enough. Let's just clean up. It's going to rain soon." Heero intervened. We looked up. Not a single cloud was in the sky.

"Five bucks says it doesn't rain." Wufei muttered.

"No bet." Quatre and I replied.

--

I woke up to a strange _thump, click, chatter chatter, thump thump. _I groaned and rolled over in my bed. It was the break of dawn, and someone was in deep trouble for waking me up so early. I slowly got up and looked out the window. The only thing I noticed was that it was wet outside. It really did rain after all. _Thump thump patter patter_

"What the hell!?" I heard an angry exclamation from the hallway. I poked my head out of my bedroom door. Three other heads were doing the same thing.

"What's all the noise about?" Quatre groggily asked.

"You're the animal expert. Come and have a look at this." Wufei glared at me. I rolled my eyes. I never once claimed to be an animal expert. That was just assuming on their part.

I followed Wufei into his bedroom and towards the window. The shock of what I saw made me immediately check to see if the window was closed.

"Yes, it's closed." Wufei replied to my unasked question. I turned to stare at him and the others that were standing in the doorway.

"Did a squirrel do _that_?!" I asked. I don't even know why I was asking, since the evidence was all there. I guess I was still sleepy. A fat grey squirrel was sitting on Wufei's window sill, happily chewing and gnawing on the window screen and surrounding wooden frame.2 Periodically it would stop, jump onto the overgrown tree in front of Wufei's window, and jump on top the roof running up and down. At least that accounted for the thumping noises that woke me earlier.

"What weird behaviour." Quatre said, examining the window.

"I knew it!" Duo suddenly exclaimed, making us all jump. "Squirrels are just rats on steroids, hence the big tails. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go write that down. I'm keeping a journal on animals you know. If I find a link or a new species they might name it after me."

"What are they gonna name it? Stupidis Maximus?" Wufei asked, as Duo ran out of the room.

"Destructive little monsters." Heero muttered. "We'd better check the other windows before it's too late." He announced and strode out of the room.

On that note, I went back to bed. Maniac squirrels could wait until I got some decent sleep.

--

"Holy shit!"

"You know, if you keep screaming swear words at the top of your lungs, the neighbours are going to complain" Quatre replied, frowning at Duo, who was standing on the porch, newspaper in his hand. It was actually morning now. Hence, I am awake.

"No, come here and look! I think we have a magical garden fairy infestation."

"That's your prime suspect?" I replied, following Wufei and Quatre outside.

Lo and behold, I got to the doorway and froze in shock. Our meagre attempt at gardening yesterday was a complete waste, because suddenly everything looked ten times better. I won't go into the gory details, but it looked like a rich family's manicured lawn, not the lawn of five college-esque guys who have no gardening skills.

And standing in the driveway was what looked like a brand new black Aston Martin V12 Vanquish. To my knowledge, none of us owned that make of car. Except maybe Quatre, but it was back home on the colonies, not here on Earth. Come to think of it, if you've ever seen a nice car in a movie, chances are, Quatre's family owns it.

"Dude! What is going on here? Q, is that yours?" Duo twisted his body halfway around to talk to Quatre, but his eyes were still on the car in front of him.

"Typical. Since I'm the first real rich guy around here, you immediately assume that ostentatious car is mine." Quatre rolled his eyes.

"So it's not yours?" Wufei asked.

"Hey, can I have it then?" Duo quipped, now bouncing on the tip of his toes, trying to get a better look at the Aston Martin from the porch.

"You can't _have _it if you don't know who it belongs-" I started.

"It's mine."

"It's _yours_?" Four voices piped.

--

"Ahhh! Take that, you little bugger"

"Duo, it's just a mosquito."

"It's a bloodsucking enemy of man!"

"For the love of…just squish it Maxwell."

"No! If he gets bug guts on my new car I will gut him like a fish."

"The last time I checked, you couldn't 'gut someone like a fish' with a handgun." I spoke up, looking away from the scenery as it flashed by.

"I'll borrow Wufei's sword."

"You will not, Yuy."

"Where are we anyway? Someone care to explain that to me?" Quatre asked, quietly capturing the mosquito with a napkin.

"A better question is: how the hell did we all fit into Yuy's Aston Martin? I thought it was a sports car." Wufei remaked, fingering his seatbelt. It was an invention we forced him to wear, seeing as he feels superior to the laws of certain countries.

"If you fit comfortably, then why does it matter?" Heero replied.

"We're going to be away from the house for a while, because _someone _said they'd check the windows and they didn't. Our house is infested with rabid squirrels now." I answered, eyeing Duo who was still frantically looking for summer bugs in the car.

"Duo, you never had the experience of summer bugs on your colony?" I asked.

"Nope. Something along the lines of them being unsanitary and some kind of law." He replied, grinning sheepishly at me.

"Hello? Is someone going to tell me where we are? Hello?" Quatre gave up.

--

AN: I just wanted this to be a quick one-shot, so I ended it with Quatre's question not really being answered. To clear up the confusion, Heero lied about the lawn competition and the prize was the car. Heero re-finished the lawn instead of checking the windows in the house. That's why the house is now filled with squirrels. Plus he wanted the car to himself. LOL I'm not a car expert, but I heard the new 007 James Bond movie has this car in it, but the car ran off the road and into a lake! No one was hurt but I looked up the car and it is awesome.

1 My brother and I actually experienced a strange bug like this. We were eating noodles in the basement when I noticed a brown line on the floor and thought I had dropped a noodle on the way downstairs. Then 10 minutes later it ran, not crawled, it literally ran, under the sofa. This continued for quite a while. You know how bugs run when you throw stuff at it? We threw a phone book at it and it didn't move. We thought we killed it. Then in another 10 minutes it got up and ran again. It was so gross.

2 LOL Yes this actually happened to me too. I pulled the blinds of the computer room window up one day to find a squirrel had ripped open one whole side of the screen and chewed on the wooden frame. Luckily our window was closed and the air conditioning was on or else we'd have a squirrel for a pet.


End file.
